By correspondent in Minna.
Traders at the popular IBB central market in Suleja have protested an alleged plan by the Suleja Local Government to expand some structures within the already congested market, describing the move as a " disaster in waiting."
Our correspondent in the area reports on Tuesday that the traders, many of who carried placards with various inscriptions against the authorities of the local government council, said that expansion if allowed to see the light of the day, further compound their socio-economic frustrations characterized by multiple levies and taxes.
They called for the intervention of the state government and security agencies, alleging that some of their members were being threatened by some people loyal to the administration of the council for speaking their minds on the unfavorable policies and programs of the council to them.
The Spokesperson for the traders, Mr. Obilly Nwaeze, narrated how they (traders) severally asked for a round-table discussion and interface with the council, to iron out the issues, but regretted that such requests were usually rebuffed with threats from the agents of the local government.
He noted that "If there are plans to remodel the market or any form of expansion, traders should be carried along but in this case, they are not telling us anything than asking us to pay different sums of money, marking our shops for demolition under flimsy excuses’.
“They asked us to pay N1.2 million each for each shop so that it can be raised to an upstairs, but they later they reduced it to N800, 000.00 in addition to paying N10,000 non-refundable for forms," he said
According to him, the protesting traders were not satisfied with the reason the council gave for such payment because they looked exploitative to them.
He called on the government to can open up more markets on the fresh ground instead of trying to turn shops, built about 30 years ago, into upstairs in the name of increasing revenue,
Nwaeze, who expressed doubt about the quality of the jib to be carried out by the council argued that" such adjustments is just an invitation to disaster, because the shops will start collapsing”.
Some of the traders, Hajiya Sadiya Bello and Mrs. Rachael Adeniji in their contributions describes accused the Local Government authorities of having a hidden agenda for keeping their claimed development plans shrouded in secrecy.
They accused the chairman and his team of insincerity arguing that, “If whatever adjustment they claim to be doing is meant for the traders, why are the traders not being carried along? Why are they not allowing us to make contributions to whatever they are doing?
It is unacceptable for the local government to be demanding monies from people daily without telling them what the monies are being used for or even allowing their input to whatever expansion you are doing.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the local government, Bawa Naibi in his reactions blamed the face-off between his office and the traders on the handiwork of some ‘mischief makers’, whom he noted were distorting facts to suit their purpose.
The chairman who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Haruna Garba Kaniko, also said that he was not aware of the N1.1 million and other levies as demanded from each of the traders/shop owners for expansion purposes.
He told our correspondent that the council embarked on demolition and adjustments in the market for safety purposes, adding however that, “we wanted the shops with perimeter fence along the link roads be upgraded to upstairs”.
The chairman who avoided areas of the possibility of the local government opening up new layouts for markets, to ease congestion of the markets; taking also into consideration the topography of Suleja town said, “IBB market has 1, 280 shops capacity according to the original master plan but today not less than 7, 000 shops”
“I think there is a lack of effective communication between the committee handling the market adjustments and the key stakeholders.
"I believe that if there were wide consultations, what is happening now could have been avoided”,
He assured that the matter would be resolved amicably soon.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
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